What a song! I was pleasantly surprised to hear Kiske and Kai sing. The guitars tell the story of those golden days. Definitely a throwback to Master of the Rings, IMO.

From Blabbermouth:

Quote:

The reunited expanded classic linep of German power metallers HELLOWEEN — featuring seven musicians, including former vocalist Michael Kiske and guitarist Kai Hansen alongside current singer Andi Deris and guitarist Sascha Gerstner — has released a lyric video for its brand new song called "Pumpkins United". The track, which is being made available on the eve of the launch of HELLOWEEN's tour of the same name, can be downloaded for free from the band's official web site.

Asked who was the first to suggest the idea of a tour like "Pumpkins United", guitarist Michael Weikath told Spain's Metal Journal: "That was always Kai Hansen who said so — always. And usually then Markus and me, we would reject the idea before, because we had different managements, we had different schedules. And also the whole thing needed to be talked about and trust needed to be created. And so it took that process of blah blah blah and whatever, and then to cut things short, a few years later, after we had the 'Hellish Rock' tour, with GAMMA RAY and Kai Hansen, one got a little bit closer and found where the things in common are. And then I had that talk with Michael Kiske at a metal [festival] in France a few years ago. As I keep telling in interviews, I had one whisky in the other hand and I was pouring myself another whisky and I had a cigarette in the hand and I had another cigarette in the mouth when I talked to him, because I was kind of excited to meet that guy again after all this time. I always thought I should call him on the phone, but I never did it, because I thought maybe he feels disturbed or maybe he doesn't have the time. Only because Weiki feels he could call Kiske on the phone, going, 'Hey, how are you?' 'Yeah, right now I'm kind of busy.' And so that's actually why I never, never, never, never called him. And then there was that opportunity, and I said to him, basically, 'You shouldn't be too angry. You just must understand me. Back at that time, I saw myself as the one to put things into the right direction in HELLOWEEN, and the fact was nobody wanted to record another record with you, so I had to find a solution, or an opinion, and I had to state it to you, and this is how things came about back then. And I hope you can maybe forgive me about that, if I tell you this. Just try to understand me, what was going on back then.' And he said, 'Maybe I've already forgiven you. I don't know. But it's better if we talk when you are more sober and not so drunk.' I wasn't really that drunk; I was just really excited. Ever since, we just had meetings with the whole band and Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen about how to do things, because what Kai Hansen had been proposing was only picked up by the management, and they were going, 'Yeah, we think that's a very cool idea, and we should do this.' And then everybody was asking, 'How do we do it?'"

Regarding how long he went without talking to Michael Kiske before they reconnected at the aforementioned French festival, Weikath said: "Ever since [he left the band], after [1993's] 'Chameleon' [album]. 'Cause we didn't know how to touch that subject and whatever, and you could see from the press and his comments that there was understandable discrepancy in our relationship. It was always, like, 'Kai Hansen has said this about you, Weiki, and Michael Kiske has said this about you, Weiki. And what do you say?' And so I was always firing back. And that's not necessary anymore if we have these talks going nad everything. And, basically, there's a time to be a little bit adult and grown up about things. Because so much time passed, there can't possibly be much more trouble, because everyone involved has more or less proven what he is capable of on his own and what he would be. Michael Kiske has been doing the solo records as they are, he's been involved in projects as they are and as they were, we've been doing the HELLOWEEN thing, and Kai Hansen has been doing his stuff. So everybody presented to the public what everyone was capable of. And so that's the history, that's all behind that whole thing. And what is there to quarrel or worry or fight about? There's nothing."

How can Deris still be doing something he never even started doing in the first place?

According to Grapow, one of the reasons he had started to be unhappy in Helloween was they had many good songs they didn't play live because Andi couldn't sing them. I do believe him; when Deris first started doing, say, KOTSK or March of Time live he was really struggling. He's improved quite a bit over the years, though.

You are entitled to your opinion, of course. At least it's an interesting one.

Kai Hansen is hardly Kai Hansen anymore and Deris still kicks Kiske's ass on the Keepers era stuff. Wish they'd have done this 10 years ago when the fogeys could still sing

Last time I saw Kai was in 2011 in the USA but he hit every note in Ride The Sky. If he's fallen a bit off since then that's fine but even that's still hella impressive. And Deris has never been able to sing the Kiske era stuff to save his life, wtf. Kiske's still got it, he's easily the one on top of his game, just watch any live video with Avantasia, or, hell, even on this tour...

The Reunion Tour was a 2007–2008 worldwide concert tour by The Police, marking the 30th anniversary of their beginnings. At its conclusion, the tour became the third (now seventh) highest grossing tour of all time, with revenues reaching over $360 million.

apart from that, there's a unique-ness to the people in the band, the fact that Lauri and Matias are better musicians (to you) doens't change the fact that the golden era was with Tolkki and Jari, and that's what people want.
Dead Giveaway.

The Reunion Tour was a 2007–2008 worldwide concert tour by The Police, marking the 30th anniversary of their beginnings. At its conclusion, the tour became the third (now seventh) highest grossing tour of all time, with revenues reaching over $360 million.

apart from that, there's a unique-ness to the people in the band, the fact that Lauri and Matias are better musicians (to you) doens't change the fact that the golden era was with Tolkki and Jari, and that's what people want.
Dead Giveaway.

Only one I've listened to enough to have an honest opinion about is Waters and Gilmour, and that was bound to happen because for a band as famous as Pink Floyd, nobody really knew the members all that well. The name "Roger Waters" had maybe a thousandth of the pull that "Paul McCartney" had, so their solo projects didn't sell all that well. Apparently Waters is having a little more success recently.

I don't know what the band's making off their tours, now or before. Their albums are still charting and they're even selling in the US now, which I'm pretty sure wasn't happening 20 years ago, but most of the money from that goes to the label and their big paycheck comes from the performances.

The other hidden cost of reuniting is that Tolkki has to figure out how to play his fucking instrument because it's not Stratovarius without the solos.

This. Literally nobody wants it, except Tolkki diehards who haven't realized Tolkki is in literally no shape to do it, and Matias and the other boys are more than capable of carrying the legacy. Some sleeping dogs should just lie.

This. Literally nobody wants it, except Tolkki diehards who haven't realized Tolkki is in literally no shape to do it, and Matias and the other boys are more than capable of carrying the legacy. Some sleeping dogs should just lie.

I know tolkki is far for top form right now, he would have a hard time playing all the classic now.
that's a different topic.
we're talking how long until a reunion.

The fact that the band members hate each other guts now is irrelevant, how many interviews did Michael Kiske bashing Helloween? when was the last one? last year?

when Axl Rose was inquired about a reunion he replied " Not in this lifetime"
and now we have "Not in this lifetime reunion tour 2017"

believe whatever you want to believe, hold on to that tight because this reunion will be happening as is going to be a hot ticket seller, in 5 or 10 years, maybe 20.

you remember how big Strato was circa 1999/2005? dont you think a reunion tour would be bring back Strato to big big sold out shows? They owned Europe back then, they can easily regain that.

This. Literally nobody wants it, except Tolkki diehards who haven't realized Tolkki is in literally no shape to do it, and Matias and the other boys are more than capable of carrying the legacy. Some sleeping dogs should just lie.

I know tolkki is far for top form right now, he would have a hard time playing all the classic now.
that's a different topic.
we're talking how long until a reunion.

The fact that the band members hate each other guts now is irrelevant, how many interviews did Michael Kiske bashing Helloween? when was the last one? last year?

when Axl Rose was inquired about a reunion he replied " Not in this lifetime"
and now we have "Not in this lifetime reunion tour 2017"

believe whatever you want to believe, hold on to that tight because this reunion will be happening as is going to be a hot ticket seller, in 5 or 10 years, maybe 20.

you remember how big Strato was circa 1999/2005? dont you think a reunion tour would be bring back Strato to big big sold out shows? They owned Europe back then, they can easily regain that.

Would Tolkki being able to play necessarily be a requirement for a reunion? Because then the answer is at least "until he learns how to play the classics again"

This. Literally nobody wants it, except Tolkki diehards who haven't realized Tolkki is in literally no shape to do it, and Matias and the other boys are more than capable of carrying the legacy. Some sleeping dogs should just lie.

I know tolkki is far for top form right now, he would have a hard time playing all the classic now.
that's a different topic.
we're talking how long until a reunion.

The fact that the band members hate each other guts now is irrelevant, how many interviews did Michael Kiske bashing Helloween? when was the last one? last year?

when Axl Rose was inquired about a reunion he replied " Not in this lifetime"
and now we have "Not in this lifetime reunion tour 2017"

believe whatever you want to believe, hold on to that tight because this reunion will be happening as is going to be a hot ticket seller, in 5 or 10 years, maybe 20.

you remember how big Strato was circa 1999/2005? dont you think a reunion tour would be bring back Strato to big big sold out shows? They owned Europe back then, they can easily regain that.

Would Tolkki being able to play necessarily be a requirement for a reunion? Because then the answer is at least "until he learns how to play the classics again"

I think yes, it would be a requirement, can you imagine these guys in the rehearsal room and realizing than Tolkki can't play as he used to? I mean JJ and TK would notice that in nanoseconds, they know him all too well.

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